It uses a small tennis ball and is designed for small to medium sized dogs. If tennis balls aren't a favorite, other similar sized balls (40mm diameter) work as well.

If your dog is really into the fetch thing, he or she just brings the ball back and drops it into the iFetch's wide-mouth hopper. The gizmo then winds up and they're off to the races again.

iFetch was funded through kickstarter.com, the web site that helps launch startups.

According to Kickstarter , the project was very successfully funded a little more than a year ago. The designers, the Hamill family of Austin, Texas, was looking to raise $20,000. They wound up raising $88,221 with 1,271 backers.

Dogster.com tried out iFetch and arrived at this bottom line: "For the ball-obsessed dog, iFetch launches mini tennis balls with ease so you don’t have to."